What Were Once Occasional Appearances Of Mauve Stinger Jellyfish In Med Now Annual, Massive Invasion

[hatrack]

For the eighth successive year, the resorts of the north Mediterranean coast are threatened by a monstrous-looking primeval creature from the depths, the jellyfish.

Although injuries to bathers have been rare, marine biologists have spotted vast shoals of "mauve stingers" or Pelagia noctiluca in the waters between Corsica and the French mainland. From next week, the town of Cannes will erect booms and nets around its most popular beaches to try to protect bathers from the nasty, but rarely fatal, burn-like sting of the invaders.

An aerial survey, Jellywatch, is also under way off the Italian and Greek coasts to try to monitor the movements of the jellyfish, which are not fish but a a kind of giant plankton. Scientists say the large eruption of Pelagia noctiluca this summer is final proof of a radical, and possibly irreversible, change in the ecology of the Mediterranean.

For centuries, plagues of jellyfish have come inshore every 10 or 12 years and lingered along the Côte d'Azur for periods of about four years. This pattern has now changed. The jellyfish have appeared each year for the past eight years in far greater numbers than before. Some scientists and ecological campaigners point to a rise in sea temperature, linked to the warming of the planet. Others blame a shortage of natural predators such as the bluefin tuna and the turtle, which have been driven almost to extinction by overfishing and pollution.

EDIT

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/mediterranean-resorts-menaced-as-stinging-jellyfish-arrive-early-852347.html

[kestrel91316]

1. Cockroaches and jellyfish are gonna inherit the earth from us....